Monday, April 28, 2008

DEI Plays Host To Manske And Punch

ESPN continues to demonstrate its commitment to NASCAR this season by dedicating a special one hour Tuesday edition of NASCAR Now to Dale Earnhardt Sr. at 6PM Eastern Time.

Down at DEI in Mooresville, NC there will be a day-long celebration of the life of Dale Sr. that will include the fans. This is the seventh such tribute that the company has hosted.

Jerry Punch will be the emcee for the event, and then will join Nicole Manske on-site at DEI for the show. On the guest list will be the current DEI drivers, including Mark Martin. Also on hand will be ESPN analyst Andy Petree. Martin and Petree should be able to continue to tell Earnhardt stories from their many adventures over the years of racing with Senior.

Max Siegel, the top executive at DEI will also be along. He should be able to give fans a great perspective of what is currently going on at DEI in terms of both the racing and the many other outside ventures. It is well-known that one of Siegel's agendas is to "expand the brand" and grow the company in non-racing activities.

Following the expansion of the Monday NASCAR Now to one hour, this special is a nice touch as ESPN begins to stretch the full power of its NASCAR "legs." There are many on-going NASCAR stories relating to hard news and many personality-driven stories that are currently not being covered by any of the NASCAR TV partners.

While SPEED has chosen to focus on the weekend racing activity at the tracks almost exclusively, ESPN is on the air daily. Unfortunately, the network continues to avoid establishing a NASCAR studio facility "down south." Special programs like this one might wake the network up to the fact that there is an entire industry working everyday within a fifty mile radius of shops like DEI.

An ESPN studio in the Mooresville area would create more quality NASCAR content that the network can imagine. It would serve multiple ESPN networks, and be a big hit with the fans.

One can only hope that more on-site programs like this Tuesday special will begin to originate from the area that almost all NASCAR teams call home.

Update: For those of you asking if Ms. Earnhardt will be appearing on NASCAR Now, that will be up to her on Tuesday. Currently, she is not on the guest list for the program. Thanks.

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I am a huge Dale Sr. fan but I for one won't wath a single minute of the charade at DEI Inc. Teresa isn't even adult enough to have Dale Jr. and Kelly there to help commemorate their father. It shows how rude and childish she really is.

Mr. Daly, I agree with you about the Mooresville studio. It would be a good addition, and it seems that it would make covering NASCAR easier for them. What I wonder is how much of a change from tradition would that be for ESPN?

Is there any other sport that is covered by ESPN offsite from their Bristol CT campus (other than the actual events)? It seems like they use ESPN Zone restaurants sometimes.

That is a great question. The last time that ESPN had a regular motorsports show, it was called RPM2Night.

The network built a small studio and office in a strip mall across from the Carowinds theme park in South Charlotte, NC. That studio was in use for many years for exactly the reason we discussed.

Almost all of the NASCAR news and original content is easy to get when the TV entity is located in the area. The NASCAR Media Group, SPEED Channel and many TV production companies already call Charlotte home.

ESPN has a big company called ESPN Regional TV in South Charlotte, and that is where the liveshots on NASCAR Now originate. That company does college sports and a ton of other production. They are not geared toward NASCAR and have no connection to the sport.

ESPN's big problem is that HD costs more to originate and uplink than non-HD television signals. With ESPN building a huge HD complex in LA, perhaps NASCAR is on the back burner once again.

anonymous said...I am a huge Dale Sr. fan but I for one won't wath a single minute of the charade at DEI Inc. Teresa isn't even adult enough to have Dale Jr. and Kelly there to help commemorate their father. It shows how rude and childish she really is.

April 29, 2008 8:15 AM

I may be wrong but I think Kelly will be on Sirius Speedway on Sirius NASCAR Radio this afternoon. Don't know if she will actually be at DEI or just via phone though.

And I do agree that Seigel shouldn't be a part of this deal and that if Teresa ever wanted to be back in the good graces of NASCAR fans that she should be.

Although I do understand the politics. What a shame that Dale Jr is not involved. Yes, life goes on and we were not there to see how it all happened. Yes, maybe a good show and sign of respect to Dale Sr. But wow, no Jr. Will record itLouKingston,NY

Great to see Kerry being interviewed, and it's true that he does look like a twin sitting there. One great thing that the interview made me realize is how "polished" most of the drivers are now regarding interviews, and the like, while Kerry just sat back and told stories. It's like looking through a time machine-

Ok JD,I will eat my comment at 529PM. Good show, Andy, Mr. Childress, Kerry were good interviews. As were the videos of Dale and the 3 from the past. Too bad except for Dale Jr in the opening, we could not have had an interview w/ Dale Jr from Ms Manske onsite.LouKingston,NY